MetroCentre

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This article is about about the shopping centre in North East England. For other uses, see MetroCentre (disambiguation).

Facts and statistics
MetroCentre


Location	Gateshead, United Kingdom
Opening date	1986
Developer	Cameron Hall Developments
Owner	Capital Shopping Centres Church Commissioners
No. of stores and services	330
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	1,780,000 square feet (165,000 m²)
Parking	10,000 spaces
No. of floors	2 ^[1]
Website	metrocentre-gateshead.co.uk

MetroCentre is the largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom and the European Union.

It is located at Swalwell, Gateshead, UK on a former industrial site, close to the River Tyne. The Metrocentre opened in 1986 and has nearly 330 shops occupying 1.78 million square feet (165,000 m²) of retail floor space.^[2] Additional retail space is available in the adjoining retail park which houses larger stores.

1 Origins
2 Refurbishment
- 2.1 Red Mall & Transport Interchange
- 2.2 Blue and Yellow Malls
3 Shops and food/drink
4 Leisure facilities
5 Metro Retail Park
6 Transport links
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Origins

MetroCentre's construction was financed by the Church of England Commissioners, and was masterminded by Sir John Hall's company, Cameron Hall Developments, the ground upon which it is built was purchased for a mere £100,000 in the early '70s. In October 1995, the centre was sold to Capital Shopping Centres for £364m, although the Church Commissioners retained a 10% stake, a stake of which is currently valued at around £1 billion^{[citation needed]}.

Reflecting its Church origins, MetroCentre is one of the few European shopping centres to have its own chapel and resident full-time chaplain. Services are held on Sunday afternoons, with special services on occasions such as Mothering Sunday and Remembrance Sunday.

The MetroCentre has four malls; red, green, blue and yellow. The malls were formerly known as quadrants. It also has themed shopping areas, called The Antiques Village, The Forum, and The Studio, formerly known as the Mediterranean Village. The studio houses many restaurants and cafes. The first mall of the MetroCentre was built in 1986 - the red mall. At the time it featured a large Carrefour store, which later became Asda. Later on, Asda moved from the MetroCentre to a nearby site on Gibside Way with a larger store than previously.

The MetroCentre in late 2007, was valued at just under £10 billion, a large increase from its original purchase price^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Refurbishment

[edit] Red Mall & Transport Interchange

ASDA's move out of the main centre was planned so that the unit could be demolished to make way for an extension and refurbishment of the Red Mall. The new Red Mall extension (including a number of new shops, such as a Debenhams department store) opened on 6 October 2004. A consequence of the expansion was that Metrocentre regained the crown of Europe's largest shopping centre that it had lost to Bluewater in 1999. However a year later, with the opening of the Cevahir Mall in Istanbul, Turkey, the MetroCentre was moved down to being only the largest shopping centre within the European Union.

The refurbishment programme also included a new Transport Interchange at the end of the Blue Mall. It replaced the old bus station and is intended to provide improved bus links to many parts of North East England, and accommodate coach services from elsewhere in the UK. The new interchange features electronic display boards and a new waiting room at the MetroCentre railway station. The MetroCentre is still not directly connected to the Tyne & Wear Metro System (but is planned to be in the near future), though regular bus shuttle services provide connections to Monument, Central Station, and Gateshead Metro stations (see Transport Links below).

[edit] Blue and Yellow Malls

On 30 November 2006, centre owner Capital Shopping Centres announced plans to redevelop the centre's Blue and Yellow Malls ^[3]. Metroland is now closed and the area is now boarded up with display boards announcing 'The New Yellow Mall', which will feature a brand new ODEON cinema (re-located from the Blue Mall), a family entertainment centre (including a new Bowling Alley) and an assortment of restaurants and other retail units. The current Blue Mall will be re-developed and used as additional retail space. The outside of the Yellow Mall is also being refurbished using cladded Zinc and Glass to distinguish it as the entertainment part of the centre.

[edit] Shops and food/drink

Many large retail chains are represented in the centre, such as Marks & Spencer (their first out of town store), House of Fraser, Debenhams, Woolworths (since 2000 when C&A closed), Argos, HMV, W H Smith, Jessops, Boots, zavvi, Carphone Warehouse and Lush. There are also numerous places to eat and drink, with a recently redeveloped area containing bars and restaurants providing an alternative to the McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Wetherspoons elsewhere in the centre.

[edit] Leisure facilities

The New Metroland, previously Europe's largest indoor amusement park, now awaiting re-development.

Up until April 2008, the MetroCentre featured a theme park called Metroland.

The New Metroland was Europe's biggest indoor amusement park. Metroland opened in February 1988 at a cost of £20 million; it was renamed The New Metroland following a 1996 revamp. [1] The park featured a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, pirate ship and dodgem cars among its rides.

Parts of The New Metroland were individually sold, its closure was to allow for development of the Yellow Quadrant.

In addition to the former Metroland, the centre's leisure facilities include an 11-screen Odeon cinema, a bowling alley, a Quasar laser tag arena , and amusement arcades (with arcade games and slot machines).

[edit] Metro Retail Park

The Metro Retail Park houses stores such as IKEA, ASDA, and Toys 'R' Us. The retail park also has a Marriott hotel; three further hotels, a Premier Inn, Travelodge and Holiday Inn Express, are within a mile and designed to serve the centre. Until August 2007 the retail park was not actually under the ownership of MetroCentre Partnership; it was purchased for £82.5 million.^[4]

[edit] Transport links

[edit] Public transport

The MetroCentre's transport interchange has a large bus station and a railway station. It is not, however, directly connected to the Tyne and Wear Metro. It is connected to Gateshead metro station by the X66 bus service and to Newcastle Central metro station by the heavy rail services to Newcastle railway station.

Major bus links include:

X66 - A non-stop Shuttle service operated by Go North East connecting the MetroCentre with Gateshead Interchange, for links to the Metro and Gateshead Quays.

100 - A Shuttle service operated by Stagecoach North East connecting the MetroCentre with Newcastle's Eldon Square Bus Station, the Grey's Monument area on Pilgrim Street and Newcastle Central railway station.

S1/S2 - Local shuttle services serving the MetroCentre complex and the surrounding retail park, as well as the Watermark development.

The railway station is on the Tyne Valley Line, which provides regular services to Newcastle Central station, Sunderland, Carlisle, Middlesbrough and Northumberland, with a twice daily service to Stranraer in South West Scotland, via Dumfries.

[edit] Road

The MetroCentre has its own junction on the A1 road and northbound this road was widened to three lanes after the MetroCentre was built to cope with increased traffic levels. Even so the centre is responsible for many journeys onto the A1 and there is often significant congestion at peak times.

[edit] Air and sea

National and international visitors can reach the centre via air using Newcastle Airport. Alternatively, it is possible to travel by ferry to North Shields from Scandinavia and the Netherlands.